Error Signals from the Brain: 7th Mismatch Negativity Conference

The 7th Mismatch Negativity Conference presents the state of the art in methods, theory, and application (basic and clinical research) of the MMN (and related error signals of the brain). Moreover, there will be two pre-conference workshops: one on the design of MMN studies and the analysis and interpretation of MMN data, and one on the visual MMN (with 20 presentations). There will be more than 40 presentations on hot topics of MMN grouped into thirteen symposia, and about 130 poster presentations. Keynote lectures by Kimmo Alho, Angela D. Friederici, and Israel Nelken will round off the program by covering topics related to and beyond MMN

Annual Report of Undergraduate Research Fellows, August 2011 to May 2012

Annual Report of Undergraduate Research Fellows from August 2011 to May 2012

Program: Graduate Research Achievement Day 2017

Full program for 2017 Graduate Research Achievement Day.https://digitalcommons.odu.edu/graduateschool_achievementday2017-18_programs/1001/thumbnail.jp

Neural Entrainment Indexes Statistical Learning in Children

Statistical learning is proposed as a mechanism for discovering structural patterns in speech through incidental exposure. However, studies have largely relied on assessing explicit memory after learning has occurred, which does not capture the time course and process of statistical learning per se. To better understand the dynamics of statistical learning, we assessed 8- to 12-year-old children using an EEG measure of learning, which captures changes in neural entrainment to words embedded in a continuous artificial language. Statistical learning was assessed post-learning using implicit and explicit behavioural tests. The neural entrainment results demonstrated rapid learning of word-level information, while post-learning tasks demonstrated syllable prediction and recognition of the trisyllabic words. These results replicate findings in adults and hint to the possibility that children and adults use similar language learning mechanisms. Importantly, this is the first study to demonstrate that neural entrainment is a sensitive indicator of statistical learning in children

Do informal caregivers of people with dementia mirror the cognitive deficits of their demented patients?:A pilot study

Recent research suggests that informal caregivers of people with dementia (ICs) experience more cognitive deficits than noncaregivers. The reason for this is not yet clear. Objective: to test the hypothesis that ICs ‘mirror' the cognitive deficits of the demented people they care for. Participants and methods: 105 adult ICs were asked to complete three neuropsychological tests: letter fluency, category fluency, and the logical memory test from the WMS-III. The ICs were grouped according to the diagnosis of their demented patients. One-sample ttests were conducted to investigate if the standardized mean scores (t-scores) of the ICs were different from normative data. A Bonferroni correction was used to correct for multiple comparisons. Results: 82 ICs cared for people with Alzheimer's dementia and 23 ICs cared for people with vascular dementia. Mean letter fluency score of the ICs of people with Alzheimer's dementia was significantly lower than the normative mean letter fluency score, p = .002. The other tests yielded no significant results. Conclusion: our data shows that ICs of Alzheimer patients have cognitive deficits on the letter fluency test. This test primarily measures executive functioning and it has been found to be sensitive to mild cognitive impairment in recent research. Our data tentatively suggests that ICs who care for Alzheimer patients also show signs of cognitive impairment but that it is too early to tell if this is cause for concern or not

2008 GREAT Day Program

SUNY Geneseo’s Second Annual GREAT Day.https://knightscholar.geneseo.edu/program-2007/1002/thumbnail.jp